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Natalie and Sabrina's research
The First Opium War • The opium war was started by the british people selling opium to the chinese people for their goods. The emporer of china was angry because of all of the people always on opium so he made it illegal to sell or buy opium. When Britain kept selling the opium illegaly, thats what started the war. • The East India Company of England, suffering an adverse balance of trade with China, decided to make up its financial losses by pouring illegal opium into China for some quick profits. The Chinese imperial commissioner, Lin Tze-su, ordered all British opium destroyed. England declared war. • The Opium War was caused when the imperialist nations wanted the good things from China such as Silk, and spices. But they didn't want to pay too much and had difficulty finding products the Chinese would want to buy. So their ships would be full in both directions. Opium was found to be enjoyed by the dock workers and their families so more and more was brought in to China. The Emperor saw the degeneration and corruption of the people caused by the Opium and threw the Imperialists out and burned the Opium stocks - Some Imperialists went to Hong Kong and set up business there on a Lease that expired not so long ago. And our great nations were built on that and similar trade . Although very much a British thing. AFAIK All the nations trading in China were involved in the exploitation. The trigger event: The Chinese government wanted to stop this opium trading for health purposes. The Chinese official in charge of the effort, Lin Zexu, forced the British Chief Superintendent of Trade in China Charles Elliot to hand over the last of the opium to be destroyed in May 1839. A month later, a Chinese man was killed by two British soldiers. Because the British wouldn’t hand them over to be tried by Chinese custody, the tension between the countries just snapped. Basic Facts: British force: 50000 Chinese force: 200,000 British Commander: Charles Elliot and Anthony Blaxland Stransham Chinese commander: Lin Zexu and Danguang Emperor It was fought between the British East India Company and the Qing Dynasty of China. The First Opium war was also called the first Anglo-Chinese war. The First Opium war started around 1839 and ended around 1842. The aim was to make China allow free trade in all their goods, especially opium. The First Opium war revolves around trading rights and disputes. Which category does this war fall in: As we all know, there are many types of wars, but you can never really figure out when which type it is. But luckily we know the type of war the Opium war falls into. We think that the First opium war is a total war: where both sides gather as much forces as they can gather and send them to battle. The types of causes for this war: Economic. An economic war is when one side’s wealth is either diminishing or increasing. They therefore provoke war. The British provoked war because they were running out of silver to trade for Chinese goods. Long Term Causes: -The British were spending too much silver buying the Chinese goods. -Chinese were not interested in British goods because the Chinese had every goods they needed. -British introduced opium as a drug. -Chinese got addicted. -The Chinese emperor was angry and forbid trading of opium. -It was the time of the British industrial revolution. Short Term Causes: -Chinese set fire to British opium goods. -The British were angry, causing friction between the two countries. -Chinese emperor wanted British to bow down before him as according to Chinese custom. Naturally, the British refused to do so, causing the emperor to be offended. Important Causes: We think the most important cause is that the First Opium war was that it was happening in the time of the British Industrial Revolution. Because Britain has just crossed over the line and now are able to mass produce items, they have a lot of goods to trade. When the Chinese refused to trade with them because they didn’t need the goods, they suddenly had a lot of goods with nowhere to go. Consequences: The British won this war. This is mainly due to their powerful navy and warships that attacked the Chinese costal cities and trading ports. When they won, they demanded the Chinese to sign the treaty of Nanking and open 5 more trading ports to trade goods. They also demanded to colonize Hong Kong, where it would be a good base to store their goods before continuing on to trade in China. Similar to other wars?: Is this war have similar causes to other wars? Militarism: Gathering as much forces to attack the opposition Alliances: There were no alliances, just two countries against each other. Imperialism: Desperately sticking to Chinese customs. Nationalism: The need to defend their own country from the addictions of a drug.